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In a time when novels about love are so often shrouded in the tragedies and pain that accompany the emotional bonding of two people that they push the joy into the background, along comes new novelist Kevin E. Taylor with a love story so genuine, so beautifully developed, so free of angst, and so uncharacteristically about two men finding a powerful relationship that reading this novel is a pleasure - and a discovery of a fine new talent!
Writing from the African American stance on same sex love is a challenge for Taylor, but his ability to incorporate the beauties as well as the idiosyncrasies too often reported as the down low form of male bonding allows him to create a fresh and genuine approach to storytelling.
The theme of Jaded is the parallel lives of two men - both handsome, successful, well adjusted, and gay - who have been bruised by past experiences in seeking a life partner for a stable and loving committed relationships.
Joshua Knight is a brilliant ad exec on the brink of launching an important Coca Cola account: his demeanor is professional and highly respected, but he longs for a partner to fill the gap in his life left by a sad failed love affair in which he felt betrayed.
Elijah Monroe is a record producer (with much more talent than most!) who is a mirror of Joshua - handsome, successful, and also equally bruised from a very similar failed relationship. At story’s beginning, then, both are ‘jaded’ eligible bachelors longing for love.
Through a series of touching encounters they court, remain chaste until their love is established, and then fully commit to each other. Their bonding is so complete that in addition to a powerful physical relationship, they also share a spiritual and intellectual level of trust and a mutual acceptance by their families of their gay love that withstands the slings and arrows that occur.
Taylor writes well. His ability to capture the various modes of expression that are part of the many ‘co-stars’ of this novel is exemplary: he knows how to translate variations in verbiage that make his characters come alive while always returning to the elegant phrasing of the fluid story line. He introduces the importance of religion in his story (Taylor is in fact a pastor in addition to his multiple other careers!) without ‘preaching’ to the reader - and that is a rare talent. While JADED is not a candidate for the Great American Novel, it is a wise, warm, well crafted love story that dares to investigate the gay world in the African American community without apology. If there is a quibble here it is in the choice of the cover for the book - a man in a top hat in the rain that does nothing to draw the reader in. Better art please… Recommended Reading for a larger audience than one would have expected from the cover jacket message.
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